Rats

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Curmudgeon - Blog

Rats – 20 September 2008

I just read in the October 2008 issue of National Geographic
magazine about trained sniffer rats who sweep minefields in Tanzania
and Mozambique in Africa, the continent with the most land mines in
the world. The rats deployed for detecting these potential explosives
are African giant pouched rats whose noses are very sensitive. Rats
are also trained to screen human saliva for tuberculosis. The article
mentioned that there are other jobs in the works for rats, such as
finding earthquake victims buried in rubble.

Humans, for their own benefit, are quick to take advantage of the
many special gifts that are increasingly being discovered in other
animals. Yet rats are among the most maligned of all creatures and are
among those who are not protected in any way from the most horrendous
abuse imaginable in laboratories, for example.

Mice and rats are not protected by any anti-cruelty laws, nor are any
research facilities required to account for any testing procedures on
them. These feeling and social animals are left to the "mercy" of the
researchers. Rats are locked in stocks for hours on end while
experiments are conducted upon them without anesthesia.

Yet humans utilize their own “superior” abilities to build the most
evil devices for the destruction of members of their own species, as
well as God’s other creatures. If that doesn’t qualify for the label of
“stupidity,” I don’t know what does!

It’s time for all people to admit that other animals have a right to
live without arrogant human abuse.

"Joyful Curmudgeon"
An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful. At the
same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the
world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true
peace and compassion.